I agree with Collins Mom. Are there kids at the school with subject accelerations (go to a room with older kids for a subject or two) or full grade skips at your school? As a teacher you know that half the fun of school is having a handful of kids to compete with. The other half is learning stuff that is new enough to be challenging so one can slowly develop good work ethic about new challenges.
Certainly kindy isn't supposed to be hugely mental heavy lifting but you can see already that you child has fallen a little bit behind in getting his toe wet in experiencing the normal amount of learning struggle.
How you get your child with learning peers and in rooms where his-level learning challenges are offered is another story. There are several options that you can explore with your school. But the first thing to do is to ask for help in evaluating the magnitude of the problem.
How? Schools will often administer WISC IQ test to see try and measure if you child is advanced in a temporary way because of the extra work you have done at home or some unconsious teaching you have done at home or if yor son was built that way at 'the baby factory.' If the schools won't, you should pay out of pocket so you can gain a professional ally who can help you talk over your options. This can help relieve the 'round and round and round we go' that can preoccupy a mommie's brain.
((BTW - I'm not getting the idea that you've been hanging over the crib with flashcards at all. I'm not for or against what get's called 'hothousing.' It depends on the circumstances. I'm just thinking that you want to get a picture of your child's 'factory defaults' and a child who figures out reading totally unassisted probably has different learning needs than a preschooler who could be taught to read with much prompting.))
How else can the school help you evaluate the magnitude of your problem? At your school, does MAP testing service provide information about what an individual student would be expected to need to learn next based on the questions wrong on the MAP? If not, then request this info from MAP. You compare this info to the scope and sequence for various grade levels to see where the challenging learning might be and where the peers might be. You can also ask to see MAP results for other classrooms with names blacked out. Where would your child need to be sitting for math and reading so that he could have a handful of academic peers and in the sites of where the teacher is aiming to provide instruction.
The point is to use the resources flexibly so your son can learn at school and play at home.
Welcome...So glad you are here. How did you find us?
Smiles
Grinity
Last edited by Grinity; 05/25/11 08:52 AM. Reason: Updated info - Thanks!
